1875,] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
261 
house flie6, are a different and bloodthirsty species, 
Stomoxys calciiram ; so called from its persecutions, 
causing horses to kick incessantly. These prevent 
both the horse and its humane owner from resting 
with comfort. Frequent washing of the floor with 
water, clean bedding of pine sawdust of dry earth, 
and permitting the horses to void their urine before 
they enter their stable, will go far to keep the ani¬ 
mals comfortable. In some stables, when the 
horses come in from work, and after watering, they 
are led to the manure pile, where they at once void 
their urine, and thus keep the stable clean. They 
are led there again early in the morning, and soon 
become habituated to the practice. If this was 
generally done, the stable would be less disagreea¬ 
ble than it now is, and the farm-house would not 
be pervaded with its odor after every visit to it. 
Shingling Gauge. 
Our correspondent “L. D. S.,” sends a descrip¬ 
tion of a very useful gauge for marking the lines 
in shingling a roof. Fig. 1 shows the method 
of using it. At a, is a long, straight edged board, 
an inch thick, three inches wide, and the length 
switch, across the muzzle, when he attempts it. 
For incurably, tricky, or vicious horses, there is no 
remedy but muzzling them. The muzzles may be 
made of leather, or of 
strips of light hoop 
iron. A band of leather 
is made to encircle the 
muzzle, and to this are 
attached straps by 
which it is buckled to 
the headstall; the 
leather or iron strips 
are riveted with ordi¬ 
nary copper rivets. 
The strips are about 9 inches long, and are riveted 
at the bottom, where the ends meet, on to a round 
piece of leather two or three inches in diameter. 
The muzzle is shown in the accompanying en¬ 
graving. When the horse is fed, the muzzle must 
be removed. This muzzle will meet the difficulty 
experienced by several of our readers, who have 
asked for a remedy for this dangerous vice. 
MUZZLE# 
Fig. 1.— THE USE OF THE GAUGE. 
of roof, if not over 16 or 18 feet. If of greater 
length, one-half of it, or a convenient portion of 
it may be shingled at one time, and the gauge then 
moved further on to cover the rest. B, B, are 
well oiled hemp cords, with knots tied at intervals 
of six inches along its entire length. One end of 
this rope is fastened to a nail or spike driven into 
the roof near the ridge. In fig. 2 is shown the 
manner of using the cords. Tapering slots are 
made in the strip, A, 
through which the 
cords B, B, are inserted 
and retained in position 
by the knots, when 
drawn well into the 
diminishing point, as 
shown in the figure. 
No chalk line needs to 
he made ; the continual 
jarring of the roof by 
driving nails, does not 
cause the loose shingles 
to slip beyond reach; 
neither is the nail box liable to slide, as it can 
always rest securely against the edge of gauge; 
in laying the shingles they are always kept in 
line, and do not need to be held down with one 
hand while a nail is held with the other for the 
gauge strip, A, does it all. When a course is laid, 
it takes but an instant to move the gauge one knot 
(or course) higher at each end. The lines, B, B, 
are attached so that the edge of the strip, A, will 
register at the points desired, and the roof is all 
completely marked off before a shingle is laid. 
Fig. 2. —STOP BLOCK. 
A Muzzle for Biting Horses. 
It is not nearly so easy to cure a horse of the 
habit of biting, as it is to prevent it. This danger¬ 
ous habit is taught by thoughtless owners or dri¬ 
vers, by teasing the animal when full-grown, or by 
playing with it when it is a colt. Sometimes it may 
he cured by giving the horse a smart cut with a 
Wastes. — In many manufacturing establish¬ 
ments a fair profit is made merely by preventing or 
utilizing wastes. The 
difference between profit 
and loss, consists mainly 
in the exercise of rigid 
economy, in this way, of 
both time and material. 
These matters are scarce¬ 
ly studied on the farm. 
If a horse has a habit of 
throwing his food out of 
the manger, it is supposed 
that the chickens will 
pick it out of the manure, 
but what is left in the 
morning, after the rats 
have helped themselves 
during the night, amounts 
to but very little, if any. 
matters abound all 
Locusts, Grasshoppers.—Mr. Riley’s Report 
Last autumn the whole country was shocked at 
learning the destitution caused in Kansas, Ne¬ 
braska, and other western states, by the visitation 
of a plague of Locusts or Grasshoppers equal to 
that of Egypt. Prosperous families were brought 
to the verge of starvation, and though aid was 
Fig. 1.—YOUNG LOCUSTS, THE LARVA AND PUPA, 
given in large sums, there was great distress and 
suffering. This spring there are accounts of the 
appearance of these insects from the eggs deposited 
by the devastating hordes which came last year, 
and great anxiety is felt as to the immediate future 
of the localities visited last year, and fears are 
entertained lest the insect has provided a stock 
which will migrate still further eastward, and 
repeat in the Valley of the Mississippi, the devasta¬ 
tions of which last year Kansas and Nebraska were 
the scenes. Last year there was a talk in Missouri 
of abolishing the office of State Entomologist. It 
was much regretted that a state which had been so 
far in advance of all others in this matter, should 
propose a backward step, but fortunately better 
counsels prevailed, and we have in the Seventh 
Report of Prof. C. V. Riley, a very full and interest¬ 
ing history of the Rocky Mountain Locust. The 
report is not of so much value because it tells how 
to avoid the visitations of the insect, or how to 
destroy it when it comes, as these are impossibili¬ 
ties, but it gives all that is known of its habits and 
its occurrence in former years, suggestions as te 
remedies, and descriptions of its natural enemies, 
little 
Scores of such 
over the farm. Mice in the granary and 
mows, and rats in the crib ; lice on the cattle 
and poultry, and ticks on the sheep ; hay 
cut a little late ; weeds suffered to grow 
a little too long; a little break left until it 
becomes a costly one; working with dull 
tools ; being a little behind hand in every¬ 
thing; all these, and many more, amount 
in the aggregate to a loss which, if saved, 
would be in themselves a fair profit. The 
general unthrift that accompanies this 
habit of waste, discourages the children, 
and they hope for the time when they 
can escape and do better somewhere else. 
It is thus in nearly all those cases where 
we hear that farming, really the best busi¬ 
ness possible, does not pay, and no man 
can long carry on a business that is not 
profitable without discouragement and disgust. 
r r \ ' i\ —.. 
A Clevis Key. 
“L. D. S.,” Tates Co., N. Y., gives the accom¬ 
panying sketch of a 
key for the small clevis 
used to connect the 
plow to the whiffletree 
ring. It is an iron key 
with a shoulder upon 
its lower edge, and a 
small hole in which is 
inserted a piece of 
round leather, as is 
shown in the engrav¬ 
ing.—By this plan the 
clevis is kept from 
spreading, and is not 
liable to be lost; it is 
a most desirable way to 
fasten all keyed bolts.— 
By placing the keyed 
end of the bolt up, the key can be seen at a glance. 
CLEVIS KEY. 
Fig. 2.— LOCUSTS DEPOSITING THEIR EGGS. 
all illustrated with engravings and maps of the 
devastated regions. An unknown enemy is more 
to be feared than one with whose strength and 
whose weapons and tactics we are familiar, and the 
assurance which this report gives to the people of 
Missouri, that should another invasion take place, 
it will not, reasoning from the past, extend easterly 
beyond a certain line, and the further assurance 
that there is no probability that the insect can per¬ 
manently establish itself in the state, is worth more 
to the people of the commonwealth, than the 
expense of maintaining a score of entomologists, and 
it is hardly likely that we shall hear any more of 
abolishing the office filled with such eminent ability 
by Mr. Riley. The great invasion of last year, is 
regarded as being in part by insects hatched in their 
proper home in the mountain valleys of Colorado, 
and the neighboring territories, and in part by those 
hatched further east, the progeny of a less extend¬ 
ed invasion in 1873. The injury caused this year by 
locusts, so far as we have seen, is reported as due 
to those hatched from the eggs deposited last year. 
We have not space to give even a full synopsis of 
Mr. Riley’s report, but we present a few points of 
present interest. The eggs are preferably laid in 
